headfirst
by McMuffin
Summary: Our favourite girls take a major step in their relationship. AU.


_I wrote this a couple of months ago, before we heard Arizona's stance on the baby issue, so... this is now AU. I hope it's still okay._

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The door clicks open and Callie looks up from the crappy Saturday night TV that has disguised itself as a documentary. She flicks the TV off and turns in the direction of her girlfriend.

"Hey! I haven't seen you since... The night before last! I took today off because I thought you had it off too. Where have you been? You didn't return any of my calls and I didn't get to tell you yet about how I got to reconstruct a guy's fibia from..."

She trails off as her favourite blonde dives for the couch and begins to sob into her chest. And not the kind if sobbing that comes with waterfalls of tears, but the kind of dry, wrenching almost-hiccup that catches in your throat every second.

"Hey hey hey... What's happened?" Callie rubs circles on Arizona's back and whispers sweet nothings in her ear to calm her below the point of hyperventilating.

"I've been at the hospital."

"For three days straight?"

Arizona nods. "Remember the car crash that came in on Thursday morning?"

Callie nods.

"There was a... a little girl... and, and I was operating on her with Bailey... And, Dr Shepherd operated on the mom... And the father... the father... and the mother..." her sobs grow louder and her gasps for air become way too rare, and Callie realizes she's having a panic attack. She reaches for the back of Arizona's head and pulls her to her chest.

"Relax, concentrate on my breathing..." She takes steady, deep breaths and Arizona closes her eyes, focusing only on breathing in time with the rise and fall of her girlfriend's chest.

Callie rubs circles on Arizona's back, trying not to freak out about why she's so scared and unable to breathe. When her body stops shaking and her pulse returns to a jogging pace, the pediatric surgeon lifts her head and the orthopedic surgeon is quick to notice the watery eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't kn-know what came over me..."

Callie takes her hand in hers and kisses her on the cheek. "Shhh, it's okay, you're okay. What... What were you saying?" She whispers.

"The little girl's parents... they were fine, they survived their surgeries... But the father has complications, and the daughter was in the same room as her mother after her surgery and... And her mother h-heard about the... father, and she... she had a heart attack! And now Kaylee, the little girl... B-both her parents are dead!"

It's rare for Arizona to cry this badly. Sure she cries whenever she has to stand up to authority, or when she gets soap in her eye, or stubs her toe, or any number of trivial things, but Callie's never seen her so distraught over a patient or anything before.

Callie's touch soothes her girlfriend until her sobs have quelled into a soft hiccup every few seconds, and then into a trembling jaw with watery eyes.  
Arizona looks up as the bone doctor brushes she pad of a thumb over her smooth cheekbones.

"I want to adopt her, Cal."

Callie's eyes widen and she feels like she's going to be the one in need of comforting in a moment as she sputters out a series of 'wh-wh-what?'s and nervous chuckles.

"You heard me." Arizona sits with a cute smile curling on her lips, her eyes puffy and red. "I want to adopt her. And we've talked about kids before -"

"Yeah, like way, way way way way way in the future," Callie's words come out in a jumbled string complete with outstretched arms.

"She has no one, Cal! You didn't see how heartbroken she was when I- me- had to leave. I'm only her doctor, but I'm all she's got!"

Callie's gaze flickers over Arizona's steady expression. "You seriously want to adopt this girl?"

Arizona nods. "Yes."

"We've only been together for a year -"

"But you want children, I want children, and Kaylee-" She grasps a hold of the other woman's hands. "Kaylee is five years old and has no one... And I think that we could look after her, be her family... She trusts me, and she will trust you."

Callie gnaws on the inside of her cheeks, contemplating the gravity of having a child in their apartment. A five year old. Her heart beats faster as Arizona looks up at her with expectant eyes and runs her index over the palm of her hand, silently tracing the words please, I love you.

Her gaze meets the scattered clothing on the floor, the dirty coffee cup and stack of multicoloured sci-fi DVDs she watched today, before drifting to the hallway where her underwear lies scattered.

"I guess I'll have to be less messy then, if we're going to foster her," she says softly.

"So it's a yes?" Arizona asks, her voice rising an octave.

"Yes!" Callie's girlfriend squeals and throws her arms around her, proclaiming her love many hundreds of times and cutting off Callie's breathing with her knee pressing into her diaphragm.

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_Review? (:_


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